La Drogheria

Piazza Vittorio Veneto and the Logic of the Aperitivo Square

Turin's relationship with the aperitivo hour is not incidental. The city claims authorship of vermouth, produces some of Italy's most structured bitters, and has long maintained a culture where the gap between late afternoon and dinner is treated as seriously as the meal itself. Piazza Vittorio Veneto — one of the largest baroque squares in Europe, running toward the Po and the hills beyond — is where that tradition plays out at its most public. Bars along the square's arcaded perimeter have historically competed less on novelty and more on the quality of what lands on the table alongside your drink. La Drogheria, at number 18/D on that piazza, operates squarely within that logic.

The name itself signals something: drogheria means a provisions shop, the kind of place where dry goods, spirits, and pantry staples once shared shelf space. That framing, common across a certain generation of Italian bar-restaurants, sets an expectation about how food and drink relate to each other. At La Drogheria, the two are not treated as separate departments. The drinks programme and the food on offer read as a single proposition, which is the more demanding way to run a bar and, when it works, the more satisfying one for the guest.

Where La Drogheria Sits in the Italian Bar Circuit

The 2025 Top 500 Bars ranking places La Drogheria at number 401, a position that puts it in recognised company on the Italian bar map. Italy's entries on that list tend to cluster in Milan and Rome: 1930 in Milan and Drink Kong in Rome occupy higher tiers, while L'Antiquario in Naples and Gucci Giardino in Florence represent the wider peninsula. Turin's inclusion through La Drogheria reflects a broader recognition that the city's bar culture , historically overlooked in favour of its Milanese and Roman counterparts , has developed a seriousness that the ranking circuits are beginning to acknowledge.

Within Turin itself, the bar scene spans several distinct registers. Caffé Al Bicerin and Caffè Platti anchor the historic caffè tradition, where the emphasis is on coffee, chocolate, and the rituals of the storico. Banco Vini e Alimenti and Bistrot Torrefazione Samambaia Torino occupy a more contemporary wine-bar and specialty-coffee space. La Drogheria's position on the international ranking separates it from both registers, placing it in the cocktail-and-food bar tier where the drink list is the primary credential and the food programme exists to hold the evening together rather than as an afterthought. For a wider survey of the city's options, the EP Club Turin guide maps the full range.

Food and Drink as a Single Programme

The bar-food pairing question is where La Drogheria earns its distinction. In much of Italy, bar food sits in one of two modes: the abundant aperitivo spread where a glass of wine unlocks a buffet of indifferent snacks, or the thoughtful small-plate format that makes a serious effort to match what's in the glass. La Drogheria aligns with the latter approach. The drogheria concept implies access to quality ingredients , pantry staples, cured goods, preserved items , and a bar built around that identity has a natural advantage when it comes to food that complements rather than competes with the drinks.

This matters because the drinks worth ordering in Turin have weight. Vermouth-based serves, bitter-forward aperitivo formats, and the kind of structured cocktails that reference the region's spirits tradition all benefit from food that provides textural and flavour counterpoint rather than neutral filler. A well-salted anchovy, a piece of aged cheese, or a preparation built around local preserves does more for a Negroni-adjacent drink than a plate of bread and olives. The bar's positioning suggests an understanding of that relationship.

Internationally, the bar-food integration question is being answered in different ways. Al Covino in Venice takes a wine-centric approach to pairing. Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu and Lost and Found in Nicosia each operate within local food cultures that shape what appears alongside the cocktail list. La Drogheria's version of this integration is specifically Turinese: rooted in a regional food culture that is unusually strong for a northern Italian city that rarely gets the culinary attention of Bologna or Naples.

The Piazza Setting and When to Go

Piazza Vittorio Veneto faces southeast toward the Po and the hills of the Collina Torinese. In summer, the square comes into its own in the late afternoon, when the arcades provide shade and the aperitivo hour extends well past the conventional 7pm. The piazza empties its tourist traffic by early evening in the colder months, leaving a local crowd that tends to be younger and more neighbourhood-rooted than the historic-centre bars attract. Spring and early autumn are when the square operates at something close to its intended register: warm enough for the outdoor perimeter to be in use, cool enough that the Po-facing end of the piazza doesn't bake.

Getting to La Drogheria requires no particular planning. The address at Piazza Vittorio Veneto 18/D is direct to reach on foot from the city centre, and the square itself is a landmark. For visitors staying near the historic core, the walk down Via Po from Piazza Castello is one of Turin's better urban approaches, with the square opening up at the end of the arcade. No reservation data is available in the public record, so arriving with some flexibility in the early evening is the practical approach.